Brendan McGahon
Ceist:76 Mr. McGahon asked the Minister for Health and Children if there was a loss of some medical certificates which was the subject of a press statement from the General Register Office on 11 January 2001. [5517/01]
Written Answers. - Medical Certificates.
The administration of the registration system is statutorily a matter for An tÁrd-Chláraitheoir – Registrar-General – of births, deaths and marriages and for registrars who operate under his general direction.
Medical certificates of cause of death have been used as part of the registration process since the introduction of the civil registration of deaths in 1864. Their purpose is to ensure that the correct cause of death is entered in the registers of deaths. These registers constitute a permanent continuous legal record. The medical certificates of cause of death are not part of the register and were not retained indefinitely. After the death is registered, the registrar sends the medical certificates of cause of death to the Central Statistics Office to enable it to complete its analysis. When this work is completed, the certificates are sent to the General Register Office.
The General Register Office uses part of the basement of the Custom House as a secure storage area for material for which there is a low demand. During a review of stock in 1998, it was discovered that medical certificates of cause of death, believed to relate to 1993, had been water damaged and were unfortunately illegible and unusable. The General Register Office made a decision to dispose of the material, which was destroyed by a private contractor under direct supervision by a staff member from that office.